Restaurants in Beijing are continuing to serve dog meat despite an Olympic ban on the infamous dish.
Officials red-carded the food because they were worried about upsetting tourists visiting the capital during the Beijing Games.
But Sky News found five Beijing restaurants still serving the dish, and went along to visit one of them in the north-west of the city.
Da Cheng Jiu Jia, which in English means Big Honest Restaurant, specialises in dog meat, serving up everything from dog hot pot to fried dog's penis.
We bought a bowl of poodle, I mean noodle soup, with a generous handful of poached dog meat scattered over the top, for 60 yuan - £5 - and a plate of stir-fried dog in chilli sauce for £2.50.
The staff expressed little surprise that a foreigner was ordering the meat - despite the Olympic ban - and were more concerned about how incompetently I was handling my chopsticks.
The fried dog meat was revolting, and even though the fiery sauce managed to cover up most of the flavour, neither me nor my Chinese translator managed more than a mouthful.
But the poached dog meat was far worse. It is difficult to draw comparisons. The closest description I can muster is putrid pork, with a stringy texture similar to well-stewed beef.
I managed a mouthful of each, purely for research purposes, and was glad I'd ordered a plate of spinach and fried vegetables to help it down.
The owner showed no surprise when we left most of our meal - and in case you're wondering she didn't offer us a doggy bag.
She told my translator they did not know where the dog had come from, or what breed it was, but said it was bought from a wholesaler outside Beijing.
"We buy it in bags," she said." It is a mixture of different types of dog. Big ones and small ones."
Animal rights groups have slammed the dog meat trade in China, and said the Olympic ban was simply a cosmetic move to try to clean up the city's image for foreign visitors.
Earlier this year, Sky News told how investigation agency Ecostorm gained access to the industry by posing as businessmen and secured pictures of dogs being brutally killed with clubs and knives.
The images showed the animals taking up to seven minutes to die before they are boiled and skinned.
They said is was one of the worst examples of animal-abuse they have ever seen.During the 1988 Seoul Olympics, South Korea also banned dog from menus.
Officials red-carded the food because they were worried about upsetting tourists visiting the capital during the Beijing Games.
But Sky News found five Beijing restaurants still serving the dish, and went along to visit one of them in the north-west of the city.
Da Cheng Jiu Jia, which in English means Big Honest Restaurant, specialises in dog meat, serving up everything from dog hot pot to fried dog's penis.
We bought a bowl of poodle, I mean noodle soup, with a generous handful of poached dog meat scattered over the top, for 60 yuan - £5 - and a plate of stir-fried dog in chilli sauce for £2.50.
The staff expressed little surprise that a foreigner was ordering the meat - despite the Olympic ban - and were more concerned about how incompetently I was handling my chopsticks.
The fried dog meat was revolting, and even though the fiery sauce managed to cover up most of the flavour, neither me nor my Chinese translator managed more than a mouthful.
But the poached dog meat was far worse. It is difficult to draw comparisons. The closest description I can muster is putrid pork, with a stringy texture similar to well-stewed beef.
I managed a mouthful of each, purely for research purposes, and was glad I'd ordered a plate of spinach and fried vegetables to help it down.
The owner showed no surprise when we left most of our meal - and in case you're wondering she didn't offer us a doggy bag.
She told my translator they did not know where the dog had come from, or what breed it was, but said it was bought from a wholesaler outside Beijing.
"We buy it in bags," she said." It is a mixture of different types of dog. Big ones and small ones."
Animal rights groups have slammed the dog meat trade in China, and said the Olympic ban was simply a cosmetic move to try to clean up the city's image for foreign visitors.
Earlier this year, Sky News told how investigation agency Ecostorm gained access to the industry by posing as businessmen and secured pictures of dogs being brutally killed with clubs and knives.
The images showed the animals taking up to seven minutes to die before they are boiled and skinned.
They said is was one of the worst examples of animal-abuse they have ever seen.During the 1988 Seoul Olympics, South Korea also banned dog from menus.
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